SEO Blog

Panda 4.0 Recovery Story

After our post two weeks ago about the Panda 4.0 update, we had a couple of websites hit pretty hard rankings wise, so we followed some of the best recovery guides out there and thought we’d share what we did, how we did it, and what results have been achieved so far.

So What Did We Do?

We went with the “Nuclear” option which involved dramatic changes to the website content, structure, layout and coding.

We were weary of time so we wanted to act quickly so the website would have all necessary changes made before the next Panda 4.0 refresh.

If your site has been hit by any Panda update, be sure to read that guide and determine the best course of action for your website.

The Steps We Took

The following are the steps that were taken to recovery from the Panda 4.0 update.

Please note, the steps for each site will be different depending on what was causing your site to trigger the filter. In our case, we identified that this website had a reasonable amount of duplicate information, ‘thin’ content pages and poor user experience in some areas.

1. Deindexed Pages & Removed ‘Cookie Cutter’ pages

We had a number of custom contact forms that had their own individual pages that were slightly different. After closer inspection, these did not need to be indexed by Google and were essentially duplicated across the website.

Unfortunately, some of the pages on this particular website could also be considered ‘cookie cutter’ pages (the same content with only minor changes) which probably deserved to get hit.

These had been on the site for a couple of years without any problem, but this Panda whack gave us the kick up the bum that we needed to beef up those pages and give their customers a much better user experience.

2. Deleted / Rolled Duplicate or Similar Pages in One Page

After going through and de-indexing redundant pages, we then did a content audit of the site and realised a number of the main content pages were all fairly similar in content and layout.

When the website was made a few years ago, we felt they each deserved their own individual pages (as they doubled as landing pages for the Google Adwords campaigns), but after thoughtful discussion with our client, we decided that there was no reason that a number of these couldn’t be merged into the same page.

We ended up cutting the number of pages by about 15%.

3. Added Additional and Better Quality Content to all Pages

After closer inspection of the information on a number of the content pages, we realised that there was a fairly low word count (around 200 words), and not a whole lot of extra value added from page to page. We decided to beef these up with better information and more engaging sales copy.

So we went through and:

added additional dot points

changed the layout of the pages

added images and other visual elements

improved the readability of the pages

added headlines and sub headlines to break up content

added links to relevant other content pages

4. Simplified the Lead Generation Process and Improved Page Layouts

The key was determining what this client’s customer actually wanted when they arrived at the site – and we tailored each page to that. We simplified the lead generation process by adding shorter enquiry forms embedded in the page, rather than forcing the user to add an extra click to go to a custom enquiry form relating to that particular content page.

This improved the overall user experience and has significantly improved the conversion rates of the website both for organic visitors, and the Adwords campaigns that were running.

The client then came to the realisation that they were missing out on a large number of enquiries just due to the inefficient page layout and longer than necessary lead generation forms.

It was initially thought that this extra information was needed, but after closer analysis, a more simplified enquiry form asking for basic contact details was a far better option so they could use their excellent phone sales team (which is their strength) to close the sale.

5. Improved Navigation Structure

We simplified and streamlined the navigational structure and reduced the number of navigation levels down to just two (instead of three) and combined several of the deeper pages into larger common themed pages.

We also removed a number of redundant and poor performing pages from the navigation.

6. Improved Load times

Another high priority was to improve the speed of the website. We used a caching plugin, optimised images, and cleaned up the website’s code to make it cleaner.

7. Acted Quickly

We wanted to get in quickly before the next Panda refresh – and we were successful.

Learnings

Fortunately, this site already had:

Good on page SEO factors

Used responsive web design

Reasonably well coded

Used WordPress

Good local visibility

A solid brand in the market

This made the process a little bit easier as it didn’t take a huge amount of time to locate what we thought was triggering the Panda algorithm.

Panda 4.0 Recovery Results

You can see the rankings recovery on the image to the right.

We were fortunate that the rankings bounced back pretty quickly and traffic returned as well.

Panda 4.0 Actually Helped this Website

Now this might seem a bit strange, but it is the truth.

The Panda 4.0 update destroyed this site’s rankings and traffic, but it was also a massive wake up call to us and our client.

It forced us both to:

Focus on the user experience

Improve the content on the website

Create better page layouts

Get a better understanding of the client’s sales strategy – realised they didn’t require as much information on an enquiry form and more phone calls = more sales

Determine what their customers really wanted and needed

Eventually improve conversion rates and overall enquiries

Conclusion

Panda updates can have a devastating affect on any website’s ranking and traffic.

It can be a challenging to identify exactly what is causing a website to get hit, but once you do, it is important to act quickly and smartly to make the necessary changes to your website.

The good news is that for local businesses, you can bounce back to previous rankings (or even better) as evidenced by this case study.

It is always a good idea to keep on top of your website’s content, layout and user experience to ensure that these updates don’t have a negative impact on your website.

I'm an avid basketballer who is passionate about internet marketing. I love local SEO and helping small business get more visibility. I am also the founder of SEO Maverick. Find me on Google+ at +Andrew Webber
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SEO Maverick is an Adelaide SEO and website design agency specialising in local SEO services. Director Andrew Webber has been in the online marketing industry for over 8 years and has worked with some of Australia's biggest brands including: Elders, Rural Bank, Cancer Council and Ouwens Casserly.